25/12/03
Busted knees, american swarms, teeming elephants.
Its been another year.

Next year, the 1st 5.1 gigs (earlymarch) and then later touring the dvd.

Have a look in djmag (dec/jan right at the back) for an interview with me
ed an andy at the corenet mashup.

Enjoy your holidays, and your new year.

take it easy,
bob

03/10/03
hell hath no fury like a festival downsized.

Well now, we all had a few reservations about the bitz festival when the
lineup got cut, but a lot of people had already got flights/tickets so we were
bound by honor to play.

On paper it was looking like a tight setup, turbosound rig/ loads of decent
projectors and plasma screens/a good size stage and despite the lineup change
i was promised it was going to b right to bust our sickness on.

(At this point i have to add that all the organizers seemed to be very nice chaps
and ladies and worked very hard to make the best of a shit situation)

one look at the venue when i got there and my heart sunk, a tiny stage with a small
screen stuck real low at the back of it, really really long changeovers covered by
whatever cd the soundman seemed to fancy and a pa that our soundman jamie
raised his eyebrows at.

After doing my regulation moping about my work being relegated to a unseen
background, i resigned myself to making the best out of the situation.

It normally takes us about 1 hour to do a fest setup, but that night, to try to keep
the painful changeovers to a minimum, we bust a record time of 15mins.
Deciding to combine the change over with the mighty pistons of divine,
the idea was at least divine into plaid was going to be slick.

Divine rips it up and as he finishes his last track the lights drop.
I notice that my desk has powered down so i spin round to give the people
milling behind me some shit for tripping over the power, but they protested
and told me all the power on the stage was off.

Half an hour passes and we find out that the whole street is out of power,
and as unrest sets into the audience, we get reports that all of rome is out
(most people i speak to think its a bitz scam) and about an hour and half after
the darkness somebody gives this info spurt (qt 6 required)

BITZ power out announce

The whole of italy blacks out, seconds before we were going to start.

damn.

we wait around for another 3 hours, waiting for someone to feed the
bigass italian leccy meter with euros, but it don't happen, so we despondently
pack our shit up and while the rain beats down we get a van back to the hotel,
driving through the strangely dark streets of rome.

We would have stayed and played on sunday but our fights back home
were early next morning and with the festival already strapped for cash,
new flights were not going to happen.

To all that came........all we can say is sorry.

nice one

bob

22/08/03
Enjoy a trip into the dv-archives with a Kushti feeling in past projects.

A load of new shows and some more info on some of the live dates.

nice one

bob

22/07/03
a large bucket of news this update

past gigs...new gigs...new plaid album...dvd news...new family

gig news.........
A big thank you to all that came to the triptych festival shows, the edinburgh show
was a bit of a nightmare for me as my hard drive decided to test my power by dying
completely.The visual part of our show was severely lacking but ed and andy made
up for it by playing a blinding show, so it was not all tears. By the next date the
hard-drive was slapped back into action (thank you osx) and we were back on
track.

Highlight of the vasarely show in france had to be the awesome venue (victor sure
knew how to rock the design!) and jamie lidells (with jeff on the vid mix) badass
mutant funk blast. Looks like we are gonna do another one next year around the
same time, so vasarely.....................better lock up yer cakes for next year.


This years Glastonbury played host to a electronic ear-nice-fest on the glade stage
sat.Those who shunned the big stage action were treated to a solid boom-bip,
cris clark, dj n.e.d., tom.p.plaid, afx knees up of epic proportions. Ed and andy
busted a whole sackfull of new harder and darker stuff, and i nearly bust a kidney
when afx assaulted a heckler with sound.
Respect to andy and n.e.d’s dj set after the live sets were over, it was heart warming
to see a sea of people from stage to glade cafe jumping up and down.
A big thanks 1st and foremost to mr.parsons for letting us run rampant on sat, and
also to all the dudes at the glade for being dudes.

Next year ..........more

there is a new section for live dates....so go here to check the latest action


new plaid album......
here is the press release for it, i like to listen to it in my blue hazmat suit.

Plaid – ‘Spokes’ LP due out on Warp Records on October 20th 2003
“Spokes marks a return in mood, if not production, to some of their earlier work in the 90’s
as The Black Dog, but retains the characteristic harmonic warmth and rhythmical sensibility
they have developed as Plaid. Although unashamedly optimistic in parts, it reaches more
melancholic and darker spaces than their recent outings on Warp.

The seeds of the album were sown as they toured America and Europe during 2002 and
many of the venues they played now have small Spokes trees growing in their dressing
rooms and toilets. However, some of these initial ideas went terribly wrong and Plaid would
like to take this opportunity to apologize for any distress they may have caused during the
course of their experimentation. We can only pray for Carston Banister.

After returning home with the basic working structures of the album in place, five months were
spent in the studio editing, enhancing, mixing and removing some of the more extreme
emotional content until one night in May, when covert Warp agents were finally able to
extract these ten finished tracks.

Elena Kopenkova painted the cover image and Matt at Designers Republic designed the font
and layout for the sleeve.

Snapping on the heels of this release will be a US tour in November and a European tour in
the new year, where Plaid will give spokes a live workout, joined as ever by live collaborator
and video artist bob.

In addition to this new album, Ed, Andy and bob have been working over the past six
months on their highly anticipated full length dvd, recorded in surround sound and due for
completion in 2004.

Early views of the yet to be completed tracks promise a very special release.”


That leads me nicely on to dvd news....

We are hammering away at the tracks and they are looking and sounding rather tasty,
the added space of the surround sound is giving ed and andy room to spread their
sonic sickness into corners that usually shun sound.

Im really exited about the piece im working on at the moment, its a co-production
with animation house slinky pictures and directed by me and illustrator/animator
andy ward. Im going to keep quiet about its subject matter but in preparation,
a shiny mask and a trademark hold might come in handy.

trawling through the archive of photos/super 8/flyers/dv for the tour -documentary
thingy for the dvd, i thought id bung up a few more pics on the site....
so check them out here.

New family vid......

the plaid new family has been doing the rounds recently.

it was shown at the royal festival hall warpworks shindig, sonar festival and now
festival in nottingham.

if you notice it sniffing around some bins somwhere in your area, let me know.


that's it for now,

nice one!

bob.

22/04/03
Damn, its been an age since i messed with the site.

Anyhow, we got some plaid shows inbound.
A greedy mouthful of new material from ed and andy,
and some new stuff (if it renders in time) from me.

3 in scotland as part of the Triptych festival (with beans and
chris clark)

Fri 25th Edinburgh - The Venue,
Sat 26th Aberdeen - The Forum,
Sun 27th Glasgow - CCA,

if the shows are anything like the glasgow magic bus mashup then
more mashing up is on the cards.

and..............

1 in a mental venue in france,
peep the warp-blurb about it.

nice one!

bob